Brewed with a 1 year old slap pack

I had bought a kit recipe over a year ago and never brewed it. So since then my wyeast slap pack has been in the fridge. Finally decided to give the recipe a go to see what happens. As usual...most of the slap packs I get don't really swell, so nothing new on that front. Almost 3 weeks later, the brew is in the keg and it tastes great.

It's a Schwarz Bier with a nice dark malty flavor. So I'm pretty happy that those little yeasties survived. The hops probably lost some AA points but it's a low hopped bier to begin with.

I probably would have made a starter, but it's awesome that it still made great beer without one.

I hope you made a starter....

It's recommended with any liquid yeast anyway, but especially if there is any reason for low viable yeast count. My LHBS sells past dated tubes of whitelabs really cheap...I've had some in my fridge for a year and made a starter and they work great..

We have to remember that if we can harvest our own yeast from the dregs in a bottle of commercial beer, growing it over many steps into huge starters, we can turn old yeast into usable amounts....

That's the magic of reproduction.....